The Alt-Right Has Lost Control of Redpill — Spot Artwork

In a memorable Matrix moment in 1999 Morpheus presented us with a choice: "The red pill will wake you up to all the horrors of reality, and the blue pill will let you stay clueless and happy in a simulated dreamworld." Since then something went wrong and in another (more regrettable than memorable) moment in 2020 Elon Musk tweeted: “Take the red pill,” and Ivanka Trump replied “Taken!”. Since then, the radicalized world of (Trump) internet has brought us memes and pills in all colors of the spectrum.

Those new memes are used mostly to express affiliation to fanatic and outlandish (often alt-right inspired) ideas, like the iron-pill (white supremacist = ripped white supremacist), the black-pill (doomers who have given up on everything), and more (and worse). The writer proposes a radical idea of undermining the "redpill" by simply reclaiming. I’m willing to try. So from now on, I'm dog-pilled and plant-based-pilled. What are you?

Writer: Kaitlyn Tiffany

Art director: Adam Maida

Image, animation: Shira Inbar

Published in The Atlantic